Sunday, August 20, 2006

Responding to a Democrat who talks more like a Repugnican...

Paul Kujawski, who self-identifies as a member of the California Democratic Party Central Committee, threw some red meat to the largely conservative readership of the Los Angeles Daily News this Sunday in the opinion section. I couldn't let him bloviate without addressing his points, so off went my letter-to-the-editor. I have my doubts the GOP-loving Daily News will print it, so I'm reprinting it right here.

How can the Democratic Party woo back the 9-11 Republicans? It won't be easy. The key is for the Democratic Party to adopt the following, or something like it, into our party platform:

There is a war between civilization and the political-religious movement usually called Islamism or Islamo-fascism (not Islam). We didn't seek this conflict, but we cannot avoid it.

While not the only issue facing America, this war is the single most important issue of our generation.

We must unequivocally win this war, however long it takes.-- Paul Kujawski

My response:

I have no complaint with adding the plank to the Democratic Partyplatform Mr. Kujausky suggests. Yes, we are in a war against radicalIslamic fundamentalism. It is indeed the single most important issueof our generation.

However, Kujawsky continues by citing the lies that got us into whatJohn Kerry rightfully called "the wrong war in the wrong place at thewrong time." There was no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein hadrestarted his WMD program. And there has never been any proof ofHussein meeting with Al'Qaeda. There had been contact between IraqiKurds and Al'Qaeda, but the Iraqi Kurds have been agitating for theirown state and had been nothing but trouble for Hussein. Al'Qaeda hadHussein on their hit list, as well as any other leader of any othersecular state in the area formerly dominated by the Ottoman Empirebefore World War I. Saddam and his murderous sons were corked up likea Genie in a bottle, unable to threaten anyone with their expansionistambitions, between two no-fly zones and a blockade.

The war against Al'Qaeda and their Afghani Taliban hosts was fought ina half-hearted, perfunctory manner. If we ourselves had gone in andwrenched Osama Bin'Laden and his lieutenants from their ratholes inTora Bora instead of "outsourcing" the job to Afghani warlords wewouldn't be talking about Al'Qaeda in anything but historical terms.We would still be fighting radical Islamic fundamentalism, because itis an idea rather than an enemy country. There would be others in theregion to take up the fight, and we would have to prepare ourselves todo so. But Al'Qaeda would have been history.

Instead, we invaded Iraq. We removed the cork on the Genie's bottle.We now have to deal not only with marginalized Sunnis who still holdsympathies to Saddam's Baathist party, but with foreign Al'Qaedainspired fighters attracted to Iraq by the chance to kick sand in the"Great Satan's" face. We also have to deal with growing ties betweenIraqi Shia radical Islamic fundamentalists and the Islamic Republic ofIran. It is not far-fetched to say that the final outcome of"Operation Iraqi Freedom" will be Iraq, or at least a large portion ofit, as a client state of Iran.

The Iraq War has made us less safe, rather than more safe. Itdestabilized a country that had been forced into stabilization by theterms of its defeat in the Gulf War. It has provided elements ofAl'Qaeda training camps and target practice. We made a big deal aboutdestroying Al'Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. We just pushed theminto Pakistan and created an opening which allowed them to beestablished in Iraq.

This war between the West and radical Islamic fundamentalism didn'tstart with 9/11. Arguably it started with the partition of the formerOttoman Empire by the Victorious Powers after World War I. A case canbe made that it started when the First Crusade was called by PopeUrban II in 1095. It will be with us for the forseeable future.However, the Iraq War was a distraction, a handwave to misdirect theWestern World from our failure in Afghanistan. And it has backfired.Big time.

The Iraq War has hamstrung us from fighting the real war on terror.Our inability to deal with a resurgent Iran and its proxy organizationHezb-i-Allah is proof that this war has come back to bite us. Ifanything, the Iraq War has strengthened Iran's hand. It has also givenOsama Bin'Laden more, not less prestige. Osama is now the man whostood up to the Crusaders, a modern day Salah-ad-din. By failing tokill him like the cur he is in Tora Bora we have allowed him toinspire a whole generation of would-be martyrs. Both the London TubeTrain Bombings of 7/7/05 and the thwarted liquid bomb plot wereexecuted by British citizens of primarily Pakistani descent.

Iraq remains the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Youcan spin it all you want but those of us who are "reality-based" knowthe score.